August Lambert ( February 18 of 1916 - April 17 of 1945 ) was a pilot in the Luftwaffe and ranks among the top 100 aces of World War II , credited with 116 victories.

Born 18 February 1916 in the town of Klesstadt, Hesse (Hessen), Germany, Lambert joined the Luftwaffe in 1937 and as a qualified pilot since 1938 spent the next five years as a flight instructor in various training centres. Lamber had to wait until 1943before joining II./Schlachtgeschwader 1 (II/.Sch.G.1), at the rank of Oberfeldwebel Flugzeugführer. II/.Sch.G.1 was renamed Schlachtgeschwader 2 (SG. 2), (edit: mentioned as 5./SG.2 in some references) "Immelmann" on 18 October 1943. Lambert flew his first combat mission on 23 April 1943 claiming a victory which was not recognised. Lambert spent much of his early operational career flying almost 200ground support missions in which he and the fellow pilots of II./SG.2 accounted for the destruction of hundreds of ground support vehicles and artillery batteries.

In the spring of 1944, Lamberts started to achive a number of victory which climbed dramtically during the battle of Sevastopol where Schlachtgeschwader II./SG.2 accounted for 247 victories of Soviet aircraft of which Lambert was credited for almost one third. Such were the flying skills of Lambert that on a number of occasions he made multiple claims for as single days operations, such as:

During a three week period of this spring Lambert claimed some 70 kills.
Following the German victory at the battle of Sevastopol Lambert was assigned in June 1944 as an instructor for flight training but in March 1945 he returned to operational assignments as an Oberleutnant with SG.151 and then, as Staffelkapitän of 8./SG.77.

On the morning of 17 April 1945 Oberleutnant August Lambert, Leutnant Gerhard Bauer and one other pilot were taking off from Kamenz for a mission to the front when bounced by American P-51Ds of the 55th Fighter Group. Bauer's FW 190F-9"Black 1 +" was quickly shot down north of Kuckau, about eight kilometres east-south-east of Kamenz while Lambert and the another 8./SG 77 pilot tried desperately to get away, but could not lose their pursuers. Lambert was shot down in FW 190 F-8 "Black 9 +" just north of Hoyerswerda, a town some 20km north-north-east of Kamenz.

In the course of his 350 combat missions, August Lambert had not only earned 116 aerial victories, but on the ground had destroyed dozens of tanks and over 200 vehicles and artillery pieces.

Edit Note: During my research into Oberleutnant August Lambert's career I've come across a number of discrepancies, the main one being that the unit Lambert served with during his phenomenal rise to super ace status, most of the book references and the decal refer to him being with 5./SG.2 whereas the internet references point to II./SG.2. I have tried to find information on 5./SG.2 by surfing the web but without success. I'm also usurer of the order and dates of the awards bestowed on Lambert, these vary considerably from one reference to the next.

I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get this one started, I sort of got a mental block and was dithering and procrastinating about which way to tackle this kit. It comes with it's own etched parts all made of steel and rather bulky but I also have an Eduard etched set for the Tamiya kit. My problem was, could I make the Eduard bits fit a Dragon kit as comparing parts the Eduard are slightly larger than the steel bits. Eventually after a week of doing sod all, it sort of went into the 'too hard basket' and all I did was pick up bits and look at them and then chuck them back in the box and walk away.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I just plunged in feet first and.......................well, here are the results.

Here I had to do a bit of hacking and replacing the cockpit front where the gunsight will be mounted.

Here we compare the two pit's, Eduard and kit.

Again the Eduard and kit instrument panels, the kit only has this steel pressed instrument panel, no plastic duplicate or decal is provided.

Here we have pictures of the finished cockpit all made form Eduard etched detail. All I have to do now is slot this whole unit it into the fuselage in one piece.......I'll let you know what happens tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......

Wayne, just got your email instructions on this 'dragon', many thanks mate.

As it so happens I had to spread the fuselage to get the Eduard cockpit tube in but had done a dry run anyway just to make sure it would fit. Having now secured the tube I still find that a couple of filters will be required when fitting the wings but as it stands, I should be able to sort these out on the wing roots before securing the fuselage. I have also seen that the nose cowlings and gun cover plate are not a good fit so will have sort something out there, maybe a couple of internal guide rails.

Wayne, just got your email instructions on this 'dragon', many thanks mate.

As it so happens I had to spread the fuselage to get the Eduard cockpit tube in but had done a dry run anyway just to make sure it would fit. Having now secured the tube I still find that a couple of filters will be required when fitting the wings but as it stands, I should be able to sort these out on the wing roots before securing the fuselage. I have also seen that the nose cowlings and gun cover plate are not a good fit so will have sort something out there, maybe a couple of internal guide rails.

Click to expand...

Glad it got to you... in time! The cowl is not difficult to do just need to take care....its fitting of cowl to fuselage to wing....that forward wingroot where they all come together is the B!tch area!
I use super glue and file and sand to shape to get a nice smooth transition.....if i can be of further service...SHOUT!